The 2104 mid-term elections was the start of a dramatic change in Washington, D.C. The Presidency was still in liberal hands, but power on Capital Hill was on the move, with republicans taking an even larger major in the House and democrats holding a slim 51-49 lead in the Senate. Problem was: Nine democrat senators kept their seats but all but abandoned Obama’s progressive policies.

The “lame-duck presidency began on January (), 2015, and the first action in Congress was to deliver the Federal Employee Actions Bill (FEAB), which mandated all civil service employees of the United States Government to cease and desist all political activities in the workplace.

The bill was vetoed by President Obama, but public opinion had already shifted–An August 10, 2015 Rasmussen poll showed 76 percent supported overreaching efforts to rid politics out of Administration agencies. The same poll showed 71 percent supported FEAB requirements to go after government employees who actively engage in political activities.

“A combination of 1984 and Romeo and Juliet…You have an uncanny knack of revealing the dark side of politics. You said a lot here about what happens to people when politics is taken to the extreme. Common ground can aid people with different opinions to resolve problems together. Thanks for a great read and I am very serious about a prequel showing of the reform zones.”

After a book reviewer posted the above, I realized that my struggle to stay focused on the lives of two families kept me from delving too deeply into the incomprehensible political shift fictionalized in OHIO 2029. The story is set in post-economic collapse America, fourteen years after the Red State party took over in 2016. In 2029, the nation is 80 percent conservative, Washington is empty and powerless, and “Orwellian” reform zones house progressive troublemakers. But during this “new normal” period–while tens of thousands are imprisoned in political ghettos simply because of their ideology–Americans still want the nation back closer to the middle. Most don’t want to understand and others understand but won’t say it: a new “political” normal rarely goes back to the old ways.

The scary part is: I believe that after the next economic collapse, OHIO 2029 America will be a reality.